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OBSERVATIONS 

Tending to illustrate the views of the New-York 
Irish Emigrant Association; in a Letter 
addressed to a Committee of a correspondent 
Association in Philadelphia . 

Gentlemen, 

The Committee of the Irish Emi¬ 
grant Association in this city, have received your 
communication with feelings of the most friendly 
and respectful consideration, and have deputed 
the undersigned to make known to you their sen¬ 
timents on the subjects to which it relates. 

As to the mode of settlement, you seem to en¬ 
tertain doubts, whether it be adviseable to plant 
colonies, that is, collect together in one place the 
emigrants from the same country; or leave it open 
to comers from every nation without distinction, 
and then let them amalgamate in the best way they 
can. Our judgment and our feelings lead us to 
prefer colonization. 

This question may properly be considered with 
reference to the emigrants themselves, and to the 
interest of the country into which they are to be 
incorporated. As to the emigrants themselves, the 
first consideration is, how to make them happy. 
Even their worldly success and prosperity would be 
very unimportant, if they did not tend to accom¬ 
plish that object. The mind is the seat and source 
*f happiness; let us then look into the emigrant’s 


XloT^ 


2 


mind and watch its emotions, if we wish to learn 
how he is to be made happy. Although domestic dis¬ 
tress, a spirit of adventure, or the love of liberty, 
may induce him to abandon his native home ; yet 
he never leaves the inhabitants that are within it, 
or the connexions that surround it, without a pang. 
He arrives in a strange country, the people, and 
the manners of which, are new to him ; their dif¬ 
ference from what he has been accustomed to see, 
and to which even his prejudices are attached, dis¬ 
gusts him ; he dislikes and cbndemns every thing 
that is not similar to what he has been familiar 
with from infancy; and if he does not retrace his 
steps, it requires, at least, years of observation and 
habit, to reconcile him to the peculiarities of his 
adopted country. This is the history of almost 
every emigrant from every quarter arriving 
among foreigners. If he comes entirely alone, he 
is generally without friends who will sympathize 
with him, and assist him to bear the unpleasant 
circumstances of his noviciate. How is this to be 
remedied? Let those whose birth-place is in 
common, who have the same feelings and habits— 
the same connexions and attachments, join toge¬ 
ther, assist and support each other; let them form 
a community into which they all can enter, where 
they will find persons and usages to which they 
are familiar, and which create a resemblance to 
their own country. In this way, if we may be per¬ 
mitted to use a gardener’ sphrase,“ they bring a ball 
about them, and will scarcely miss the moving.” 



3 


Even the inhabitants of New-England, though 
always living under the same government; 
and institutions similar to those of the place to 
which they are about to migrate, yet find it plea¬ 
sant and convenient to gather themselves together, 
and settle with a view to their former associations. 
They established a new Connecticut in the Ohio 
Territory; and that not merely in name but in 
fact. The inhabitants of a township in the eastern 
states, who may be disposed to explore the western 
wilds, generally understand one another, concert 
their measures beforehand, and if they do not de¬ 
part in a body, yet they eventually come together 
at a preconcerted rendezvous. School-fellows 
and companions in infancy, re-unite in a far 
distant spot, remote from the scenes of their 
early pleasures: and it often happens that the 
grown up man meets there and marries the play¬ 
mate of his childhood. On the same plan, the Swiss 
and the Germans frequently transplant themselves ; 
surrounded by countrymen, and by the usages 
and fashions of home, each man is almost uncon¬ 
scious of the change ; he is distracted by no hesi¬ 
tation or embarrassments of choice, but finds a ral¬ 
lying point for himself and his friends; he sets 
himself about his occupations of industry, with at 
least as much cheerfulness as in his native fields', 
sure of assistance in his difficulties, and of conge¬ 
nial society in his hours of relaxation; he is 
therefore never exposed to the disgusts and morti¬ 
fications of a straggling settler in a strange land 



4 


Irishmen, on the other hand, mostly emigrate 
without concert; their views are fixed by no cir¬ 
cumstance to any precise spot; their time and 
funds are consumed in doubt and deliberation 
which way to turn; they remain about the sea¬ 
ports where they land ; are regarded as burden¬ 
some to the settled inhabitants; and from not 
being respected by others, cease to respect them¬ 
selves. Or if their course be more fortunate ; if 
they escape from the cities, they mix unseconded 
and unsupported among strangers, with whom 
they have no early sympathies, to whom their pe¬ 
culiarities are often subjects of ridicule, and per¬ 
haps of dislike. Every thing brings back a pain¬ 
ful recollection of home; and it requires years of 
mental struggle before they enjoy the real bless¬ 
ings of their lot. 

Let us test what are the emigrant’s feelings, 
by another observation, which will seem pecu¬ 
liarly important to those, who hope that the 
success of our plan will decide many, that 
are now suffering and balancing in Ireland, to 
withdraw from want, from degradation and op¬ 
pression, and grasp the boon of increased opu¬ 
lence and liberty, which we hope to tender to 
them. Suppose information were communicated 
in that country, that Congress had passed a law, 
comprehending a noble plan of facilitating the 
settlement of emigrants from every nation; that 
it had reduced the price of land, and extended the 
term of credit to fourteen years; and that Ame- 


* 


5 


rica had now opened her arms to all the world 
the news would undoubtedly make a bustle among 
the enterprising and calculating; but would it 
thrill from heart to heart? would it run through 
the land with the secret and electric rapidity of 
the intelligence we hope to send them, that an as¬ 
sociation of their countrymen and friends have im 
plored, and obtained from Congress, a sufficient 
quantity of luxuriant territory, in a delightful cli¬ 
mate, to give room for the industry of perhaps 
fifty thousand families, who would be settled 
together, and raise up a young and happy 
Erin, in the bosom of abundance and freedom? 
Let us consult our own hearts, and we shall soon 
learn how dear to the emigrant such a society 
would be. Let him at least among you instruct 
the rest, who came here in his youth, a poor, 
friendless, unprotected child of fortune; who af¬ 
ter having struggled through many years of labo¬ 
rious but successful industry, has arrived at opu¬ 
lence ; who still thinks of home, with the vivid 
recollections of youth; who, if he had the power, 
would instantly take up and transport his na¬ 
tive village, with its church and its chapel, its 
school-house and its market-place, and all its in¬ 
habitants in his boyish days, and plant them in 
the spot where he resides; who even in the de¬ 
cline of life and decay of feeling, would gladly 
part with half his wealth, if it would induce one 
of the scions of his parent stock to strike root 
near him. * 


1 * 


6 


If we are right in saying, that settlement by 
colonization conduces most to the happiness of 
the settlers, that it smooths away many of their 
early difficulties, makes their necessary hardships 
less intolerable, and their labours more pleasant 
and prosperous, surely it ought to be adopted; 
unless some countervailing objection should be 
found in the interests of the country into which 
they are to be incorporated. We believe none 
such exists—the increased prosperity of their in¬ 
dustry, is in itself a public benefit. But it may be 
„ supposed, that the foreign nationality which such a 
mode of settlement is calculated to cherish, may 
be at variance with the attachments they ought to 
form to their adopted country. This we consider 
as a mistake: That nationality always charac¬ 
terized Irishmen in the service of France, Spain, 
Germany, and all the Catholic powers of Europe ; 
and also many of the most active officers of our re¬ 
volution ; but it never prevented their being devot¬ 
edly attached to the cause and interests of the coun¬ 
tries by which they were protected and employ¬ 
ed. Indeed, the operation of colonization is to 
destroy the foreign character of that nationality, 
and to give it an object and dwelling place in the 
adopted country; to which it is therefore calculated 
to strengthen the settler’s attachment. His early 
affections and partialities would be gradually with¬ 
drawn from the foreign country, and transferred 
to the colony—they would become blended with 
his devotion and gratitude to the government, 
the laws and institutions under which it had been 


7 


raised and flourished. In his domestic and inte¬ 
rior relations, he might have some Irish feelings 
and propensities; but in the performance of his 
duties as a citizen, he would be exclusively and 
ardently American. What inconvenience has ever 
resulted from the German or Irish settlements in 
Pennsylvania, the Swiss settlements in Indiana, or 
indeed from any on the same plan in the United 
States? and even if there could be any inconve¬ 
nience from such national partialities, how long 
could it last? it must pass away with the first ge¬ 
neration. What injurious traces of it are to be 
found in the western parts of your state, chiefly 
peopled by Irish, or in the middle, a considerable 
portion of which was settled by Germans? 

You have now our sentiments with candour, in 
reply to that part of your interesting communica¬ 
tion. There is another matter on which we are 
led to offer some observations, because they re¬ 
late to an objection individually made by some 
of your body, and which we have heard from so 
many quarters, that we have thought it deserving 
of very serious attention. We have been asked 
why we have fixed on so remote a region as the 
Illinois for our projected settlement ? Why we 
did not rather think of the Alabama Territory, so 
much nearer to the great market of New Orleans, 
and in a region where the productions of the earth 
spring up with such profuse luxuriance. The 
example of the French association has been held 


8 


up to us, and some surprise expressed that we 
have not followed it. 

Many motives, however, determined our 
choice,—one was the hope of more easily suc¬ 
ceeding in our application, if it pointed to a thinly 
settled and frontier territory, where a large in¬ 
crease of settlers would be regarded as an impor¬ 
tant acquisition. That, however, was but a minor 
motive,—our choice was chiefly decided by re¬ 
garding the moral and physical habits and charac¬ 
ters of those whom we wish to benefit. Farm¬ 
ers and inhabitants of a temperate climate would 
be injudiciously placed in a highly southern lati¬ 
tude, to the cultivation and productions of which 
they are unaccustomed, and against the diseases of 
which they are by no means seasoned. The Il¬ 
linois Territory, though warmer, and perhaps more 
genial than their native atmosphere, is a suffi¬ 
cient approximation to it, and in so far as 
they differ, is better. Its prairies, interspersed with 
small parcels of wood land, present a face not very 
unlike their own improved and cultivated coun¬ 
try, and can be worked* with the implements of 
husbandry, to which their hands are from infancy 
accustomed. The clearing of forests and grub¬ 
bing up the roots of trees, are occupations and toil 
for which they are not fitted. An Irishman will 
sooner domesticate himself (if we may be allowed 
the expression) in the Illinois, than he would in the 
Alabama or Mississippi Territory. 


9 


Even these considerations) however, strong as 
they are, were not the most conclusive to our minds. 
Our society is endeavouring to act for persons, 
who never saw a slave, whose principles (so 
far as they are fixed) are repugnant to slavery, and 
who would consider their moral purity tainted by be¬ 
coming slave-holders after they became men. But 
independent of these considerations, interest seems 
to present another objection. The persons for 
whose benefit we act are farmers and labourers, 
who must themselves be workers in the field, and 
active hands to cultivate the ground and collect 
the harvest; though they would not own a slave, 
they would not work by the side of one. In the 
Illinois they will work as they have been accus¬ 
tomed to do in Ireland; labour will be pleasant 
to them, and its fruits be sweet. But place 
them in a slave-holding district, and they will 
soon lay claim to idleness, as the white man’s 
badge of superiority; they will be too proud to 
stoop to the field labour which is usually perform¬ 
ed by negroes. 

If they are without capital and fortune, they 
will probably abandon the settlement, and do 
what we should originally have done for them, 
seek a place where their ordinary occupation and 
agricultural industry are not considered derogato¬ 
ry to the first man in the community. If they 
should have capital, they will seek to become 
planters^ and must materially change from what 


10 


they have been. The selection made by the 
agents for the French emigrants was probably ju¬ 
dicious; but it ought to be no example to us. 
They never were farmers or labourers, nor even 
(generally speaking) men taken from the middling 
class of life. They were officers and military 
men, or statesmen, to whom labour would be an 
intolerable burthen. Many of them spent much 
of their time in the West Indies, and were become 
familiar with slavery, with the torrid zone, and its 
productions. They could not be happy in the 
'United States (deprived as they are of their former 
opulence, and yet still remembering the luxury 
they lived in) except as southern planters and 
slave-holders. 

The remoteness of the Illinois from a market is 
not perhaps as great an evil as it may seem at first 
sight. While the country is settling, and popula¬ 
tion pouring into it, the domestic market will con¬ 
sume all their surplus produce. But even after¬ 
wards, they will be as near the great market of 
New-Orleans as the state of Ohio, and the greater 
part of the state of Kentucky and Indiana. We 
can therefore form some judgment what degree of 
opulence and happiness they may arrive at. But 
they will be in truth better situated for that market. 
The falls of the Ohio at Louisville present an ob¬ 
stacle to the transportation of produce down that 
river to New-Orleans, except when the water is 
high. The consequence is, that all the procjucp 


11 


to the east of the falls is sent down there at 
once, and gluts the market. The heat of the clip 
mate renders it impossible to keep the flour and 
provisions, and of course much of it is sacrificed. 
But the settlers on the banks of the Mississippi, the 
Missouri, and the Illinois, are under no necessity 
of waiting for any height of waters, and scarcely 
for any change of season. Every man may take 
that time for sending down his produce, which 
suits his own convenience; and he may choose 
the driest season, when the commodity is 
scarcest in New-Orleans, and the price the high¬ 
est. 

The length of the preceding observations will, 
we hope, be excused; we have been led into them 
by the desire to make you fully acquainted with 
our views, in the hope of a cordial good under¬ 
standing and co-operation. The same motives 
induce us to transmit to you a copy of the instruc¬ 
tions we have prepared for those who are to act 
for us at Washington. On that subject permit us 
to request that you may, with as little delay as 
possible, appoint one or more delegates from your 
body to co-operate with ours; as our success or 
failure may perhaps entirely depend on the inform¬ 
ation, talents, and zeal of those deputed to act 
for the Societies, at the seat of government. 

Be pleased, Gentlemen, to accept for your¬ 
selves, and the body which you represent, the 



12 



sincere assurance of our great respect and per 
sonal consideration. 


THOMAS KIRK, 

JOHN MEYHER, 

WM. JAMES M‘NEVEN, 


JAMES R.MULLANY, 
DENNIS M‘CARTHY. 

New-York, Dec. 19,1817. 


















































































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